Anorexia | Introduction
Kelly, a sixteen-year-old high school student, was slowly dying. At five feet, three inches, she was of normal height, but her body weight had dropped from a healthy and normal 125 pounds to a dangerous reading of barely 50 pounds. Her weight loss began at fourteen when she pleaded with her mother to allow her to go on a partial liquid diet so she could lose a few pounds. Her mother, thinking this was just a harmless phase her daughter was going through, reluctantly approved. Within a few months Kelly lost 25 pounds and was hospitalized by her mother when she nearly passed out on a walk they had taken together. She was treated for a few days and then released since her condition was not lifethreatening. However, Kelly did not admit or recognize that she had a serious problem. Over the next couple years, her obsession with weight worsened as she dropped down to as low as 50 pounds, 40 percent of her normal body weight. Seeing that Kelly was weak, listless, and skeletal, her mother once again checked her into a hospital. After a four-month struggle, Kelly finally acknowledged her eating disorder and began a recovery. When she was released from the hospital, she weighed 102 pounds and eventually reached a more normal weight of 115 pounds. Although Kelly still struggles to resist her urges to lose weight, she is happy to be alive.
Kelly suffers from an eating disorder called anorexia nervosa, more commonly known as anorexia. She is not alone. It is estimated that between 6 and 10 million women and another million young men suffer from an eating disorder of some kind, most frequently either anorexia or bulimia. Bulimia, which is characterized by binge eating and purging, is the more common eating disorder. But an estimated one percent of all teenage girls suffer from anorexia, which is characterized by an obsession with dieting and weight loss.
The American Anorexia Bulimia Association defines anorexia as a disorder in which preoccupation with dieting and thinness leads to excessive weight loss. Along with this preoccupation, anorexics develop a distorted body image and think they are fat even though they are dangerously thin. A person is considered to have anorexia when his or her dieting reduces the body’s weight to 85 percent of what would be considered normal.
Anorexia, although not as prevalent as bulimia, is generally considered to be the more serious and deadly disorder. According to researchers, more than 10 percent of all cases end in death. Anorexia is also more difficult to treat successfully than bulimia. A recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School of 245 women undergoing treatment for eating disorders found that while 74 percent of bulimics had a full recovery, only 33 percent of anorexics fully recovered from their disease. With such a low recovery rate it is easy to understand why anorexia is such a cause for concern.
The causes of anorexia
What could cause a person to intentionally starve herself to the point of death? Many experts believe that anorexic behavior is usually triggered by external influences and factors. One widely held belief is that the media and society’s emphasis on body size and thinness encourages anorexic behavior in vulnerable teens and children. In her popular book, Afraid to Eat, nutritionist Frances Berg contends, “It’s irrational, but kids are succumbing to the same destructive cultural messages about body and weight that plague adults. Instead of growing up with secure and healthy attitudes about their bodies, eating and themselves, many kids fear food and fear being fat.” Other experts suggest that dysfunctional parents and family life contribute directly to anorexia. They argue that demanding parents can send a message to a child that nothing they do is good enough, causing them to work harder and harder for approval. In a culture that places such a high value on thinness, losing weight can easily be seen as a way of gaining that approval. Sometimes, too, when a family is under stress, such as a divorce, a child may use eating habits as a way to regain some sense of control in her life.
Other eating disorder specialists contend that anorexic behavior comes from internal sources but is triggered by outside influences. They argue that some children are predisposed to anorexia in that they have a poor self-image or are ultra-sensitive. When they are subjected to stresses such as a divorce or excessive peer pressure, they lack the inner resources to handle such matters and may express their unhappiness through their eating habits.
Some experts see anorexia as having a distinct cause. Peggy Claude- Pierre, the director and founder of the Montreux Clinic for eating disorder patients, contends that some children are born with what she calls Confirmed Negativity Condition (CNC). Children with CNC view the world differently than others do. According to Claude-Pierre, these children feel a heightened sense of responsibility at an early age to solve the problems of their families, society, and the world. When they inevitably fail, they feel worthless and become withdrawn and detached. She contends that this negative view of oneself triggers anorexic behavior and that to cure an anorexic one must first reverse the CNC. As she states in her book, The Secret Language of Eating Disorders, “I have come to believe that CNC precedes the eating disorder and is at the root of these devastating illnesses. The eating disorder is the symptom; CNC is the affliction we must cure.”
Anorexia is a complex, formidable, and growing problem that continues to plague teenagers and many adults as well. Baffling researchers and healthcare providers alike, anorexia promises to trouble humankind for the foreseeable future. At Issue: Anorexia explores this horrible and enigmatic disease through personal narratives of anorexics as well as professional opinions of eating disorder specialists and researchers.
